Inger Stevens Movies

Savage Run was originally telecast as Run Simon Run (after bearing the working title The Tradition of Simon Zuniga). Burt Reynolds stars in this made-for-TV movie as a Papago Indian, who returns to his people after serving a long sentence for a crime he didn't commit. To clear himself of the murder of his own brother, Reynolds begins a long and bloody search for the actual killer. Inger Stevens made her final film appearance in this 74-minute Aaron Spelling production. Run Simon Run was first shown December 1, 1970. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Mask of Sheba was the pilot film for a potential TV series titled Quest. Eric Braeden, Stephen Young and Corinne Camacho play three daring adventurers with a predilection for archeology. They are hired to locate a missing safari in Ethiopia. The safari had been searching for an ancient golden mask of the Queen of Sheba. Off our threesome goes to Ethiopia (which looks a lot like Mexico, where the film was shot), encountering dangers and double-crosses along the way. Mask of Sheba has enough plot for three TV movies--and none of them would have made it as a weekly series, either. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

It's a seemingly peaceful spring morning in New York City -- graduation day at the Police Academy -- and Police Commissioner Anthony X. Russell (Henry Fonda) is looking forward to giving a speech to the new officers. But all isn't well: Russell's been given apparently incontrovertible evidence that his oldest friend, Chief Inspector Charles Kane (James Whitmore), is shaking down a bar owner, and a black minister (Raymond St. Jacques) is claiming that his son was brutalized when he was picked up for questioning in a rape/assault case. Then Russell gets a call informing him that two first-grade detectives, Daniel Madigan (Richard Widmark) and Rocco Bonaro (Harry Guardino), allowed small-time hood Barney Benesch (Steve Ihnat) to get the drop on them, steal their guns, and escape while they were trying to pick him up for questioning at the request of Brooklyn detectives -- and Benesch is now a suspect in that earlier murder in Brooklyn. Madigan has other problems, including the fact that the commissioner -- his ex-captain -- doesn't trust him, always believing him to be a loose cannon who has taken advantage of the badge in accepting favors and cutting corners where peoples' rights were concerned. Madigan also has a beautiful, upwardly mobile wife (Inger Stevens) who loves him but can't abide all the time his job takes him away from her or crimps her socializing; and he has never fully gotten over Jonesy (Sheree North), a saloon singer he knew before he was married. Madigan and Bonaro are given 72 hours to bring in Benesch and begin beating the bushes for leads. They get help from "Midget" Castiglione (Michael Dunn), a bookmaker and an old enemy of Benesch's, and a nervous, long-haired punk named Hughie (Don Stroud). While the clock ticks away on Madigan's and Bonaro's careers, the commissioner must decide how to deal with Kane, whose father -- also a police officer -- was like his own, and he must also fathom how a four-star chief could be involved with anything as tawdry as pressuring a tavern owner. Russell genuinely believes that there must be "one standard, one rule" for any member of the department, but in the course of this one weekend, he finds this notion shattered by what he discovers about Madigan, King, and himself. Meanwhile, Benesch is still on the loose, acting like a complete psycho and a threat to anyone who crosses his path. Russell's and Madigan's paths finally cross personally, as the detective proves -- and the commissioner discovers -- just how good a cop he is. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide

Ex-lawman turned rancher Jed Cooper (Clint Eastwood) is moving a small herd of cattle when a group of nine men on horseback, led by Captain Wilson (Ed Begley Sr.), ride up and accuse him of having stolen the cattle and killed their owner. Refusing to believe his account, they string him up by the neck and leave him for dead, but they don't do the job right. Cooper is dangling there, barely alive, a few minutes later when Deputy U.S. Marshal Bliss (Ben Johnson) spots him and cuts him down. He survives the next few days in Bliss' tumbleweed wagon with the other prisoners, and is later cleared of any wrongdoing and released by Judge Fenton (Pat Hingle), just in time to witness the hanging of the man who really murdered the owner of the cattle and took Cooper's money. Cooper still wants revenge on the nine men who tried to hang him, but Fenton insists that he leave the bringing of them to justice to his deputy marshals. As it happens, Fenton is in desperate need of deputy marshals for the territory that he oversees, and he also knows that Cooper was a good lawman. Cooper, in turn, is now broke and in need of a job, and does want to see justice done. They strike an uneasy bargain, Cooper agreeing to wear a badge and bring in the men he's looking for -- alive -- for trial. The latter proves easier said than done, however, when the first of them that he spots tries to draw on him when he makes the arrest. One of the hanging party, Jenkins (Bob Steele), soon turns himself in and provides the names of the others. Cooper takes Stone (Alan Hale Jr.) alive, but the hapless blacksmith is later shot by the local sheriff (Charles McGraw) while trying to escape. The other men, led by Wilson, have no intention of dying, or even being brought to trial, without a fight. Two of them go on the run out of the territory, while Wilson and two of the others decide to take the law into their own hands once again. Meanwhile, Cooper becomes a hero when he single-handedly brings back a trio of rustlers who are also guilty of murder. This leads to Cooper's first confrontation with Judge Fenton, who, in a gripping scene, explains why it is essential that he be as seemingly quick to hang a man as he is. Unless the people are convinced that the law will do its job -- including hanging men who deserve it -- they will keep taking the law into their own hands and there will be more lynch mobs like the one that tried to kill Cooper. In the course of his quest for justice, Cooper also makes the acquaintance of Rachel (Inger Stevens), a young woman with her own search for justice, haunted by her own ghosts, and the two of them are drawn together, no more so than when Wilson and two of the others try to gun Cooper down in cold blood. The final confrontation between Cooper and Wilson escalates in violence to its savage, irony-laced conclusion. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide

Ed Stander (Robert Morse), with the help of an all-star cast, teaches Paul Manning (Walter Matthau) the fine art of philandering in A Guide for the Married Man. Paul, happily married to sexy Ruth (Inger Stevens), has no burning desire to cheat, but Ed makes the prospect sound very attractive. Finally taking the "big step" with a glamorous brunette after months of careful preparation, Paul finds that he loves his wife way too much to betray her -- while the ever-careful Ed ends up in divorce court. Among the myriad of "advisors" peppered throughout Guide for the Married Man are Art Carney, Lucille Ball, Jack Benny, Jayne Mansfield, Terry-Thomas, and Carl Reiner. The best guest-star vignette features Joey Bishop as a man caught in bed with another woman by his wife -- whereupon he calmly puts on his clothes, straightens up the room, and quietly responds to his wife's outrage by saying "What bed? What girl?" Adapted by Frank Tarloff from his book of the same name, Guide for the Married Man was directed by Gene Kelly, who makes a cameo "appearance" of his own as a voice on a TV set. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The Long Ride Home is the British title for the Columbia Civil War western A Time for Killing. The stars are Glenn Ford, a regular of sagebrushers, and Inger Stevens, a relative newcomer to the genre who between 1967-1970 made up for lost time with such films as Hang 'Em High and Firecreek. Ford is Union POW camp commander Major Walcott who rides out to capture escaped Confederate prisoner Captain Bentley (George Hamilton). Bentley and his men have kidnapped Walcott's fiancee Emily Biddle (Stevens) to assure themselves safe passage, but several of the escaped Rebs hope to divest themselves of Bentley and have their way with their beautiful captive. Among the troops is a very young Harrison Ford, collecting his meager Columbia contract paycheck and hoping for better days. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

When his car runs out of gas on an oceanside road, Manuel Sanchez (Christopher Dark) shows up at the beach house owned by Karen Wilson (Inger Stevens), begging Karen to look after his girlfriend while he goes for gas. Not believing Manuel's story, Karen refuses -- and shortly afterward, Manuel's sweetheart is beaten to death. Suspecting that the killer is one of her neighbors, Karen ends up seeking protection from her friends, a group of handsome surfers. But as it turns out, Karen's fate rests in the hands of Manuel Sanchez -- who may be disinclined to accept such an "honor." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Made for the continuing TV series The Dick Powell Theatre, a truck driver (Peter Falk) cares for a pregnant woman (Inger Stevens) after picking her up along the road. Falk won an Emmy for the role. ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide

First telecast January 22, 1960, this Twilight Zone episode was adapted by Rod Serling from the famous radio play by Lucille Fletcher. In the original radio version, the protagonist was a young man named Ronald Adams, played by Orson Welles. Deducing that TV viewers would be more emotionally affected by a woman in distress, Serling rewrote the main character as Nan Adams, with Inger Stevens filling the role. While making a cross-country motor trip, Nan is terrified by the repeated appearances of a shabby-looking hitchhiker (Leonard Strong) who shows up at every turn and who seems to be beckoning her to. . .what? Classic line: "I believe you're. . .going my way." Listen for Eleanor Audley, in the climactic telephone-call sequence -- she also provided the voice of the wicked queen in the Disney theatrical feature Sleeping Beauty. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Inger Stevens guest-stars as Emily Pennington, the frail and sickly fiancée of itinerant miner Black McCall. Arriving on the Ponderosa, McCall asks that Emily be allowed to stay until her health improves. Hoss grows fond of the girl, but can't shake his fundamental mistrust of McCall's motives. Featured in the cast is Bob Knapp as Emily's brother John. Written by Thomas Thompson,"The Newcomers" originally aired on September 26, 1959. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

On a perfectly ordinary day, the management of an airline receives a note demanding a half-million dollars from someone who claims to have put a bomb aboard one of their planes. When the device, a tiny but dead electronically-triggered explosive, is found, they're told that there's another -- the FBI and the news media are all present as it is retrieved. One of those who sees the drama unfold on the news is Paul Molnar (James Mason), an electronics expert, who suddenly finds himself in the middle of a nightmare along with the rest of his family-- he and his wife (Inger Stevens) and their young daughter are kidnapped by Paul Hoplin (Rod Steiger), a former army buddy of Paul's, who duped him into designing the devices, and now wants Molnar's wife to act a courier for the money. With her husband and daughter in the hands of two of the gang (Angie Dickinson, Jack Klugman), she is made to pick up the money and make her way across New York while a clock is ticking on their lives -- and she must survive being left guarded by Steve (Neville Brand), an ex-con, murderer, and sexual predator, and the least-tightly-wrapped of all Hoplin's gang. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide

Bing Crosby scores in a rare unsympathetic role in the MGM domestic drama Man on Fire. Crosby plays well-to-do businessman Earl Carleton, recently divorced from his wife Gwen (Mary Fickett). Bitter over the breakeup, Carleton doggedly maintains custody of his son Ted (Malcolm Broderick), refusing his ex-wife visitation rights and even kidnapping the boy when the courts rule against him. As Gwen's new husband Bryan Seward (Richard Eastham) sagely observes, however, Carleton is basically a nice guy who is trying in vain to convince himself that he's an unforgiving louse. It takes the combined efforts of young Ted, Carleton's new lady friend Nina (Inger Stevens, in her film debut) and sensitive Judge Randolph (Anne Seymour) to bring out Carleton's best side. Though Bing Crosby does no singing in Man on Fire, the title tune is perfomed over the main credits by the Ames Brothers. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide